Inner Self
by Ymir Eberhardt
Summary: (Yuugi x Parsee oneshot sequel to Full of Surprises) Parsee gets to know her fiance a little better.


"Yuugi, I have a question."

I quirk an eyebrow at my fiancé, Mizuhashi Parsee, who is sitting across from me at our kotatsu. "I'm sure you do, sweetheart," I reply. "You're an inquisitive little thing."

She makes an irritated throat sound. She does that a lot to me, only I don't know why. I think I'm pretty damn funny.

"I didn't want to bring it up earlier because I was a bit nervous, but…the night you took my virginity, I said your true name, and you…changed." She takes a dainty sip of her sake. "Why is that?"

"It's complicated," I say, because it is. "I told you that names have power, didn't I?"

Parsee nods. "But why?"

"Because I'm an oni," I say simply. "Back in the day, after we stole the power from the tengu, we had this sort of Ceremony of Adulthood where we become bound to both each other and a special name. Since we were pretty paranoid about the tengu coming back, we did this to ensure safety, but after the Treaty, it mattered less, and it stayed a custom."

"Interesting," Parsee murmurs. "I wonder if all youkai are like that. My kind isn't…" She suddenly finds her sake dish really fascinating.

"Hey, now," I say. "I don't think all the other youkai are like that. Maybe tengu, 'cos they're close-knit, but I'm not too sure."

That brightens her mood a little. "So your name was Hoshiguma-douji?"

I feel a tingling sensation in my gut. "Technically, it's Hoshi," I explain. "The 'guma' is a deva honorific, and the 'douji' is a human-given honorific as a tribute to Suika."

"Are you okay?" Parsee asks.

"Not really." My hands are shaking. "You shouldn't throw names around like that. It's dangerous for a little hashihime like you. You're fragile. Like a flower." I give her a sideways smile.

Parsee rolls her eyes. She does that a lot, too. "Yuugi, guess what?"

"What?"

"Shut up."

I sigh and refill my sake dish.

"So by safety," Parsee continues, "what do you mean?"

"If another oni needed assistance or protection, calling out one of her sisters-in-arms would Awaken her and, because of our camaraderie, would bring her to the battle."

"So when I said your name earlier…" her voice trails off.

"When we were fucking?"

"Making love!" she hisses.

I wrinkle my nose. "You're more romantic than you let on, aren't you?"

Parsee's cheeks flush.

"When we were making love, and you said my name, you Awakened that part of me, yes. If an oni calls me out, it's instantaneous, but if it's a human or another youkai, I have to be in a passionate mood, and normally, I'm strong enough to hold it back. Like right now, I'm trying to stay in control." I laugh lightly. "You bring out the animal in me, Parsee."

Parsee smiles, but she stays quiet for a moment. Then she says, "I like your Awakened form. It's beautiful and scary at the same time."

I blush a little. "Those aren't the words that come to my mind, but I haven't seen myself Awaken in years."

"You should."

I hesitate. "Right now?"

Parsee motions for me to stand, and we both step away from the kotatsu. She takes both of my hands and stares directly into my eyes. I really love her eyes; they're bright green and have a sort of depth to them that I always manage to get lost in. And then I feel all warm and happy inside.

Normally, after I stare at her like this for a while, she slaps me and calls me a creeper, but today, she kisses me. It starts out gentle, but then it turns into something I love more than anything: raw passion. I adore Parsee when she's vulnerable like this; it shows that she trusts me, that she's feisty, and that she makes really cute groaning sounds when she's aroused.

I pull her closer, resting my hands on her hips. Being this passionate with Parsee is a double-edged sword; I love our little give-and-take and forcing Parsee's submission in the end (or letting her win, because it boosts her ego), but it takes a lot of self-control to not tackle her and have my way with her. My hands are getting a little impatient, so I grab her ass. She inhales sharply, then leaves a trail of sharp nibbles down my neck.

"Damn you," I manage to say. The tingling is back and stronger than ever. I tighten my grip on Parsee, and she squeaks in response.

She lifts her eyes to mine, and right before I feel like melting, she says, "I love you, Hoshiguma-douji."

I can feel it beginning, and it hurts like hell, so I try to focus on Parsee's eyes. As long as she doesn't blink or move, I won't feel anything.

She blinks.

I scream.

I feel like every inch of me is on fire and I'm suffocating from the fumes while enduring the worst hangover known to woman. I being to wonder why I didn't notice this last night, but I decide that pain and pleasure blended together then, so I couldn't tell the difference between my Awakening and my orgasming.

Just when I think I can't take it anymore, it's over. I must've gone into a state of blind passion, because I'm straddling Parsee's hips and her lip is bleeding. I also notice that I ripped her shirt, which I'm sure she'll kill me later for. Or worse, she'll make me buy her a new one.

"Wow," Parsee sighs.

I lean down to parsee's lip. As she stiffens—obviously slightly terrified, like most sentient beings should be—I lick the blood blossoming on the cut. When I pull away, the bleeding stops.

Parsee either looks like she's going to cry or come. "Can you get off of me?" she whispers.

I stand and help her up.

She tugs on my arm and leads me to the hall mirror.

I have no problem looking at myself on a normal day. I mean, I'm not entirely pleased with my height (or lack thereof), and I wish I was as curvy as people liked to depict me, but otherwise, I find myself pretty good-looking.

It's my Awakened form I don't like.

I'm a red oni, which basically means I'm an offensive fighter, have a relaxed-but-impulsive-and-scary-when-pissed-off personality, and I have red skin. I'm all muscle when I'm like this, too, which leaves me with little womanliness to work with.

With the exception of Suika, who's always been a ginger, all the oni I've ever met including myself have naturally brown hair (with the tint of their skin color mixed in). The worst part is the fangs. They're too long to be overly functional outside of scaring the shit out of people, and I happen to have six of them: two on the bottom and four on the top.

Parsee comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my hips. Eventually, her hands wander beneath my skirt and explore a little between my legs. She's really feisty and adventurous once you get to know her, and that may be one of my favorite things about her. I sigh and close my eyes.

"You're beautiful…Hoshi," Parsee says before kissing my cheek. "And before you tell me you're not, I'll tell you why I think so."

I don't feel like one of the strongest oni, with her toying with me like that; I feel like mush. She's melted me down. I shiver and groan slightly.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, but your hands make it hard for me to focus."

She slips her hands out from the waistband of my skirt.

"That doesn't mean stop," I complain.

She rolls her eyes and rests her chin on my shoulder. "I've always wanted to see what goes on beneath the exteriors of all the beautiful people. I want to see the monster they really are, and once I became a hashihime, I knew I could never love a woman who I couldn't see through. And…you're that woman. When you're like this, you're revealing your inner being, and I feel like I know who you really are. My previous marriage didn't work out because I didn't see anything coming beforehand, but now I know what I'm dealing with."

I know Parsee's first marriage is really hard for her to talk about, and I'm one of the only people who knows about it. Unlike most traditional hashihime, she ran away with another woman, which was technically against the law back then, but they were too in love to care. Or, rather, it didn't matter to Parsee; her wife decided to play by the rules and had an affair with a nobleman. When Parsee found out, she killed them both in blind rage and became a hashihime. Then she went to hell and was torn apart every day by her jealousy of what she refers to as "the beautiful people."

Apparently, she views me as some sort of angel, saving her from eternal punishment, when in all reality, I'm a worse demon than her. She's killed two people, when I've murdered hundreds, even thousands, and ate most of them afterward. She's jealous, and I'm an alcoholic with power, control, and anger issues. But none of that matters to her. Perhaps because I'm such a sinner, she has nothing to be jealous of me about, and that's why we can be intimate without making her tear herself apart.

I turn around and pick her up, carrying a laughing Parsee bridal-style to our bedroom. I toss her onto the bed and say, "I'll have to repay you for that little speech."

"Please do," she says with a grin, looking up at me with an expression of utter bliss.

As I pin her down and kiss her forcefully, I make out a gasp on an "I love you" from her lips.

I pull back and smile. "I love you, too, Parsee. And you're the most beautiful woman in the world to me…"


End file.
